


i'd burn this city down (to show you the light)

by loonyBibliophile



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alice is still The Worst, Allusions to and mentions of abuse but nothing explicit, F/M, Gen, No Murder AU, Protective Jughead Jones, Senior year, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 17:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14958953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonyBibliophile/pseuds/loonyBibliophile
Summary: Alice has been keeping Betty from seeing or speaking to Jughead for months, nearly years. But when things get desperate, he's still the only person Betty wants to turn to.(A No Murder/No Black Hood AU where Betty runs to Jughead and the Southside when her home life takes a turn)





	i'd burn this city down (to show you the light)

Betty wrung her hands together. It wasn’t like she’d never been to the southside before, obviously she’d been there to see Jughead more than a few times, but she’d never just waltzed deep into the belly of the beast before. She stared at the Whyte Wyrm from the back of the parking lot, fidgeting. Her nerves weren’t all about entering the Serpent bar, of course. A lot was riding on this. _Everything_ was riding on this. This outing was Betty’s last chance, it was her one phone call. She’d dressed down, along with her other preparations before she left her house, so she wouldn’t draw even more attention to herself than she did just by being a Northsider. Not just any Northsider, but the daughter of Alice Cooper, notorious Serpent traitor. 

Taking a deep breath, she walked across the asphalt of the lot and through the doors of the old bar. Immediately, people in leathers turned to see who had walked in and sneered, jeered, or rolled their eyes. Betty recognized a few of the younger Serpents as some of Jughead’s friends, and made her way over to them, as confident as she could manage.

“I need to talk to Jughead.” she said, keeping her voice as even and confident as she could. She glanced around after she spoke. She’d been hoping to spot Jughead’s friend and unofficial second in command, Toni Topaz, but she didn’t see her signature pink hair anywhere. 

“And what does the traitor’s daughter, little miss Northside Princess, want with our very own Serpent Prince?” the tallest of the group, Sweet Pea, asked with a raised eyebrow, cocking his head. 

“He’s my friend. I know you guys know that. I need to talk to him.” Betty stared up at Sweet Pea, trying to look unfazed. 

“Some friend you are, princess. We know he hasn’t seen you in months.” Sweet Pea crossed his arms, and Fangs, who stood nearby, did too, watching them. 

“That’s why I need to talk to him. Listen, I know my mother is a heinous she-devil who writes terrible half-truths and flat out lies about the Serpents in the paper. She is a generally abysmal excuse for a human being, and I am very aware of that. Trust me. Please, let me talk to Jughead Jones. Give me two minutes of his time. You can come with me, I don’t care, come supervise, hell, you can frisk me for a wire!” Betty was growing manic, and starting to ramble. In the midst of this diatribe, someone recognized her voice, and started down the stairs from the balcony area. 

“Betty? Betty Cooper?” Toni called, striding through the scattered groups of Serpents. Betty turned, and sagged with relief. 

“Toni! Toni, please tell Jug I need to talk to him. It’s an emergency, I promise.” her eyes and voice were both desperate now, and Toni nodded, slipping through a door behind the bar to one of the Wyrm’s hidden rooms. 

“Hey, boss. You have a visitor.” She leaned in the empty door frame and glanced over to Jughead, who was sprawled on a beat up sofa, typing furiously. 

“I told you not to call me that, Toni, it’s weird. Also, I’m busy, tell them to come back later.” Jughead didn’t even look up from his laptop as he spoke. 

“It’s Betty, you tool. I’m bringing her in.” Toni vanished into the halls once more. 

Jughead had snapped to attention the moment he heard Betty’s name. He saved his progress, just to be safe, and pushed his laptop aside. A couple of emotions warred within him as he waited to see what she wanted. After all, it had been months since she contacted him, which made him angry and bitter and also kind of sad, but it also worried him. Months of radio silence followed by an urgent visit to the very heart of Serpent territory? Something didn’t smell right. 

His concerns were instantly validated when Toni ushered Betty into the room. She was working her ass off to cover it up and look normal and put together, but years of friendship and observation could tell Jughead in mere moments that something was very wrong in the world of Betty Cooper.

“I’m so sorry I haven’t been in touch!” Betty blurts out immediately. She rushed halfway across the room, like she was going to run over to him, but then stops short, abruptly, wringing her hands. “It’s a really long story, but the short of it is my mother has finally well and truly snapped.” 

“I was worried when I kept asking after you with Pop and he just kept telling me he hadn’t even seen you.” Jughead says quietly, moving over to make room for Betty on the sofa. 

“Mom figured out we were using Pop’s to check in on each other and grounded me. I haven’t been allowed to leave the house aside from school or approved family outings in months.” Betty frowned, starting to feel exhausted as the adrenaline of her day so far wore off, and headed towards the sofa. 

It was true. She’d effectively been on house arrest for nearly four months now. Before she was put on lockdown, she and Jughead had been keeping in touch by leaving messages and inquiries with Pop. Since Alice had begun monitoring Betty’s phone, they could no longer text or call, and it had been almost a year since Alice banned visits in person. When Jughead and his dad had first moved back to the Southside, after Gladys left with Jellybean almost two years before, Betty had just ridden her bike to the trailer park on weekends. But her mother had slowly taken away more and more ways for them to communicate until she effectively removed the Jones family from the picture. 

“Safe to assume you’re playing hooky then.” Jughead deadpans. Betty nods. 

“This is my hail mary, Jug. My last and only chance. Things have gone completely off the rails.” She flexed her hands, and Jughead frowned. He moved to reach for them, but then stopped. It had been too long since he saw his best friend for him to feel comfortable grabbing her hands, even if it was to keep her from hurting herself. 

“Tell me what happened.” Jughead said quietly, then turned to Toni “Go keep an eye on the guys. Thanks.” Toni mockingly saluted and slipped out the door, and Jughead refocused his attention on Betty. 

“I think last time we could actually talk, I told you my dad was starting to get kind of weird about religion, right?” Betty asked, settling into the sofa. Jughead nodded “Well, that’s only gotten worse. So, my dad has slowly been ramping up the creepy religious fervor, mom’s been getting more and more controlling, and Polly and I have been getting more and more tired of it. Then, a few months ago, Polly drops a bomb at family dinner and tells us that she’s pregnant.” Betty takes a breath, nervously tugging at her ponytail “My dad goes absolutely insane, screaming about wedlock and sins of the flesh and throwing things. He tried to force her to get an abortion. My mother, being my mother, decides this is somehow a Serpent’s fault, god only knows how, which is why the Register has been particularly nasty to you guys lately.

“Anyway, mom effectively puts me on house arrest and banishes Polly to some home from troubled youths run by nuns from the weird church my dad can’t shut up about. But then Polly ran away from the home, and was missing for a little bit, and then wrote us this weird letter and I honestly, truly think she joined a cult. She’s living on some farm, outside Greendale, with a bunch of other people who believe ‘forgiveness is the only relevant virtue’ or something. This was the final nail in the coffin of my parents’ sanity. My father started reading us the old testament at dinner. My mother started locking the refrigerator at night and monitoring everything we all ate. Then today happened.” Betty paused finally, taking a shaky breath. 

“I came home from school and my mother put a lock on my bedroom door. The outside of my bedroom door. My mom wanted to lock me into my room. And the past few weeks I’ve been hiding stuff in the Blue and Gold office, just essentials and things that won’t get missed, in case things took another turn and the lock was it. I had to cut the screen out of my window with a pair of pinking shears to get here, Jug. Because she locked me into my own bedroom.” 

“Jesus.” Jug breathes out finally, his eyes blown wide with shock. He sees Betty clench her hands, and this time he doesn’t stop short of sliding his hands between her palms and the tips of her nails. She gives him a look at once surprised and tired and grateful. 

“But there’s something you need to know.” Betty said, even more quietly than she’d already been speaking. “I think my mom has a mole in the Serpents. She has this… notebook, and it’s got all this information in it I don’t think she should have, and I think someone is feeding it to her.” she frowns, and Jughead curses under his breath, rubbing his thumbs on Betty’s palms. 

“It’s possible.” he says after a moment, his form deflating “There are older members who aren’t thrilled with me running things on dad’s behalf. That think the throne should have gone to a member of the old guard, and not some punk ass kid.”

“I figured as much.” Betty nods, biting her lip. “I’ve been worried about you. Do you think…” she pauses, wrinkles her nose “Is anyone unhappy enough to frame you? For the leaks?” 

“Probably. Which means I need to get people I trust poking around. Toni, maybe Fangs. Maybe Sweet Pea.” Jughead pulls one hand back, and rubs it across his face “Jesus.” 

Jughead pauses then, takes a moment to really look at Betty. He’d known when she walked in something was off, but now that he really looked at her, she was a mess. Her eyes were rimmed in red splotches and bruise-dark circles, her cheeks were pale and drawn, her normally perfect posture was slumped. She looked bony, like she hadn’t eaten in awhile. She looked like a girl at the end of her rope. 

“Christ, Betts.” he murmurs softly, and holds one arm out to offer his best friend a hug. A hug from Jughead was a rarity, even for Betty, and she took full advantage, leaning into his chest and trapping her arms between them, clutching at his shirt. 

“I don’t know what to do, Juggie.” she managed to eke out before bursting into tears. He didn’t say anything. He just let her sob, rubbing circles into her back with one hand and using the other to keep her from falling over. When she finally stopped, her sobs transitioning to hiccups and sniffles, Jughead leaned her back slightly, putting a warm hand on her shoulder. 

“I’ll tell you where we’re going to start. I’m going to go talk to Toni for a minute, then you and I are leaving through the basement door, so you don’t have to walk past a bunch of people who will stare at you. I’m going to give you a ride to the trailer. You can borrow some clothes and I think you should lay down for awhile. Sleep if you can but at least just… lay down and rest. I will go to Pop’s and buy us a truly disgusting amount of takeout, because god knows when the last time you ate something other than rabbit food was. And once you’ve rested and eaten, we can talk and go get your stuff from the school.” 

Betty had always known, even as a young kid, that Jughead was her rock. But this was something else entirely. Was this what he’d been doing, the two years he’d been in the Serpents? Becoming this confident man who knew how to take care of people? She nearly burst into tears again, from relief this time, but merely nodded and gave him a crushingly tight hug. 

“Thank you.” she says after a minute, her voice hoarse from crying but almost reverent with gratitude. The look in her eyes as she stares up at him, soft and open and hurting, makes his heart swell and ache all at once. He rubs his thumb over her shoulder. 

“Anything, Betts. I’ll be right back, okay?” Unthinking, after he stands to go find Toni, he kisses the crown of her head. 

Out in the Wyrm, he spots Toni immediately. He pulls her aside, into a quiet corner. 

“Things with Betty’s family are bad. Real bad. I’m dealing with her, but there’s something else. She thinks her mom has a mole in the gang.” His voice is hushed, and Toni’s eyes go wide with concern. 

“Shit.” she mumbled “Shit, that would explain a lot.” 

“I’m taking Betty to the trailer. Handle things here. Think about who we can trust absolutely. We need to figure out what’s going on.” Jughead gives Toni a kind but stern look and a slap on the shoulder. She nods. 

“Go take care of your girl, Forsythe. I can handle these assholes.” she smiled good naturedly, and Jughead rolled his eyes before walking back to the room where Betty was waiting for him, curled up on the sofa. 

“Hi.” she said quietly. 

“Come on.” Jughead said softly, gesturing her over. “Let’s get you home.” 

Betty follows Jughead out of some weird back door of the Wyrm, resisting the urge to hold onto the back of his flannel like a little kid, feeling lost and sad. His bike is parked behind the bar, and he produces an extra helmet from a cargo crate lashed to the back with bungie cords. She pulls it on and waits for him to straddle the bike before she climbs on behind him, clutching his waist for balance as he starts the engine and revs out of the lot and towards the trailer park. The bike rumbles beneath her, and even though it should frighten her, or maybe exhilarate her, between the rumbling and Jughead in front of her, she almost feels sleepy. 

At the Jones’ trailer, Jughead helps Betty down from the back of the bike, and walks her inside. 

“I’ve been using the bedroom, since dad is gone, so my stuff’s all in there. Do you want some sweats or pajamas and a shirt, maybe? You don’t look very comfortable.” he looks bashful, glancing around the room. Drained, Betty just nods. Jughead understands, and just rifles through a few drawers before coming upon a well worn white shirt and a pair of gray flannel pajama pants. He hands them to her, and she slips off to the bathroom to change. When she surfaces a few moments later, she’s also splashed some water on her face, and taken down her tight ponytail. Jughead rubs her shoulder again. 

“Make yourself at home, okay? Lay down, get some rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise, you’re safe here.” 

Betty nods, and he kisses the top of her head again, and locks the front door behind him. The air in the trailer is chilly, so Betty picks up a discarded flannel shirt and pulls it on before curling up on the bed and closing her eyes.

While Betty snoozes, Jughead hits up Pop’s. He orders six burgers— three for him, one for Betty, two for the fridge— a side of fries, a side of onion rings, a few slices of pie, a strawberry shake— extra whipped cream, extra strawberries— and a double chocolate shake. All to go. It takes a decent chunk out of the petty cash he keeps around, but he doesn’t care. Pop asks after Betty, and Jughead doesn’t tell him what happened, but does tell him that she’s okay, that she’s at the trailer. Pop looks relieved, and Jughead realizes the older man must have been worried too. It really was unlike Betty to vanish from one of her regular haunts like that. It takes some careful and creative packing to get everything safely in the cargo crates, but he does it. 

When he walks into the trailer, he sets all the food down on the coffee table in the living area, and heads for the bedroom. Jughead knocks softly, and then pushes the door open. Betty is half asleep in his bed, one of his flannel shirts pulled over the rest of her borrowed clothes, her golden waves of hair spread out over the pillows like a halo in a Byzantine painting. He almost doesn’t want to wake her, but she stirs on her own, like she can feel him in the room. 

“Juggie…” she says, her voice groggy. In spite of the seriousness and general messed up-ness of the day, Jughead can’t help but smile and feel his stomach swoop. Betty Cooper, in his clothes, in his bed, sleepy and saying his name. If it weren’t for the things that put here there, it would be a literal dream come true. 

“There’s food. I got a metric fuckton, so don’t worry about rushing out before I eat it all. But there is a strawberry shake with your name on it that may melt.” 

“You’re my hero.” she mumbled, dropping her feet from the side of the bed and padding into the living room. Jughead sat on the floor, leaning against the sofa, and Betty joined him, pressing close to his side. They eat in near silence. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to stay in touch.” Betty says softly, after a long pause. Jughead shoves a handful of french fries in his mouth, then squeezes Betty’s shoulder. 

“What were we supposed to do, Betts? Your mom made it impossible. She’s like a fire breathing dragon, curled up at the base of your crumbling tower, keeping you from running from mutually assured destruction.” Jughead nudges her with his shoulder, and Betty actually giggles a little. 

“Are you calling me a princess in need of rescuing, Jughead Jones?” she smiles softly, and Jughead blanches. 

“I never said that.” he replied quickly, shaking his head.

“It’s okay, Juggie. I don’t mind.” she leans her head on his shoulder, sipping from her milkshake. 

“Well, I’m sorry I don’t know any knights to climb up your hair and bring you to safety.” Jughead says, jokingly. But he regrets it, turning red the moment he says it. 

“I always liked the Disney version of Rapunzel best. Deranged mother, a daughter fighting for independence, a dashing rogue with a heart of gold…” Betty trails off, a smile on her face, and takes a bite of an onion ring. 

“Happy ending.” Jughead replies, nodding. 

“Yeah. A happy ending.” Betty turns her head, still resting on Jughead’s shoulder, and looks up at him. “I guess you think those are cheesy. Unrealistic.” she smirks, but sighs. 

“I don’t know. I think sometimes we need the hope. A reminder there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.” his voice is quiet, and the soft way he’s looking at her makes Betty’s heart do somersaults. But she squashes down that particular hope, because this is not the time. Her life is falling apart, and Jughead is just trying to help her stick the landing. It’s not his fault that even with all the time that passed she couldn’t shake her dumb crush on him. 

“Can we watch a movie, Juggie?” she asks, leaning further into him, exhaustion starting to tug at her limbs. “Something with a happy ending?” 

“Sure, Betts. Breakfast at Tiffany’s?” he rubs her back, already moving to get the DVD to put in his computer. 

“Sounds perfect.” 

They fall asleep together on the sofa. Audrey Hepburn’s rendition of Moon River haunts Betty’s dreams. 

Those dreams, which may or may not involve Jughead, are ended abruptly when someone bursts through Jughead’s door at eight in the morning. In a panic, not knowing who to expect, Jughead jolts up, pointing his switchblade at the door. But it’s just Toni and Sweet Pea. Both Betty and Jughead breath a sigh of relief. 

“So I’m grilling you about this later Jones,” Toni says, waving a finger around the couch Jughead and Betty still share “but for now we caught the mole, he’s with Fangs in the basement of the Wyrm. 

“Did you go get my mom’s notebook? Did it say who?” Betty asks, voice still sleepy. 

“No, I actually just went through FP’s old files and figured it out on our end. But your head’s up is appreciated, and will be remembered.” Toni smiles at Betty, and Betty offers her a sleepy thumbs up. 

“Come on, boss. You’re the boss, after all.” Sweet Pea smirks, and tosses Jughead’s serpent jacket into his face. 

“Stop fucking calling me that, Pea.” Jughead says, rolling his eyes and gently shifting around Betty to stand. 

“Can I come?” Betty asks, still blinking awake. 

“No.” Sweet Pea says immediately, at the exact same time Jughead says “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” and Toni says “Sure, why not?”

They all look at each other. Jughead looks down at Betty, who looks stubborn. He sighs. Sweet Pea rolls his eyes. 

“At least give her one of your dad’s old jackets. Princess will stick out like a sore thumb.” Sweet Pea gestures up and down at Betty. Betty shrugs, agreeing, while Jughead gives Sweet Pea a particularly harsh glare. Sweet Pea throws his hands up. 

“He’s got a point, Jones.” Toni says, adding her own shrug to the mix. 

Jughead looks deeply unhappy about everything happening, but he raises, walking over to the closet and digging until he finds a beat up Serpent jacket. He hands it to Betty, eyes full of worry. 

“I’ll go change.” Betty says quietly, slipping away and into the bathroom. When she comes out, she’s wearing the dark jean skirt she wore the day before, with Jughead’s faded white Southside High t-shirt and the Serpent jacket. The outfit does something to Betty that she can’t quite explain. The Southsiders, minus Toni, didn’t like her much, but Jughead’s shirt and jacket made her feel like she was a part of something. “Okay. Let’s go.” she said, voice calm. She reached for Jughead’s hand, and he took hers in his own, and neither felt the need to question it. 

They all set out to the Wyrm, three motorcycles zipping through the Southside in the early morning. Despite the hour, there are at least a dozen Serpents in the bar, milling around, and they all turn to look at the four kids, eyes lingering with questions in them on Betty, wrapped in the leather jacket. They all descend the stairs to the basement, where Fangs is holding Tall Boy. Jughead sighs. 

“I wish I were surprised,” he says, shaking his head. “I really do. My dad treated you like a brother, Tall Boy. I grew up calling you my damn uncle.”

“You’re a damn kid. Your father should have left the Serpents to me. I’ve earned it.” the older man struggled, but Fangs held strong, so Tall Boy settled for spitting at Jughead’s feet. 

“Was my mom paying you?” Betty asks. Sweet Pea shoots her and Jughead a dirty look, but Jughead shoots it down with a glare. 

“What’s the traitor’s daughter doing here? No, Little Miss Northside. I approached her. A little misdirection, and we reached an agreement.” Tall Boy smirked. 

“She would have turned on you eventually.” Betty says, sounding tired. “Probably outed you as her source. It’s what she does.” 

“Oh, poor baby, trapped with Mommy Traitor in the Big Bad Northside.” Tall Boy spits out, fighting against Fangs’ grip once again. “Shit like this is why you aren’t fit to run the Serpents, kid. Bringing a Northsider into our turf? Putting her in a damn jacket? And not just any Northsider, but the daughter of Alice Cooper, Serpent enemy number one.”

“Betty is my friend, Tall Boy. And she knows better than most what kind of person her mother is. Her mother is the entire reason she came to me for help.” Jughead subtly puts himself partially in front of Betty, between her and Tall Boy’s hard gaze. 

“Help.” Tall Boy scoffs. “She stops coming to visit her ‘friend’ until she needs something. Typical.” Jughead’s eyes harden. He steps forward, letting go of Betty and looking into Tall Boy’s face.

“I suggest you stop talking, Tall Boy.” he said, his voice low, hand hovering over his belt, where Betty and Tall Boy both know his switchblade is. 

“And yet you stand up for her. You’d raise arms against me, one of your own, for that.” Tall Boy looks disgusting, jerking his head towards Betty. “She has everything you don’t, we don’t. A house. A family. Respect. And you grovel at her feet.” 

“I have a family, Tall Boy. And that family includes Betty Cooper. You know why? When her mother had me banned from texting her phone number, Betty bought a burner phone, just to talk to me. When her mother found and destroyed the burner phone and cut off Betty’s allowance so she couldn’t buy a new one, or get minutes, Betty started using Pop Tate to check in, make sure I was still doing okay. Growing up, when my dad and Gladys were too busy fighting to remember they had children, Betty is the one who remembered to bring me a cupcake for my birthday, every year.” Jughead steps back, taking Betty’s hand again. She leans into him, supporting herself with his body weight. 

“And now she’s gotten you to turn on me.” Tall Boy sneers. 

“This isn’t about Betty. We always would have ended up here.” Jughead says simply, tightening his grip on Betty’s hand. “Have you told the rest of the council?” he turns to Toni, who shakes her head. 

“Not yet. Wanted to wait for your go.” 

“Tell them. Let them deal with him. They deserve to handle him, his betrayal will sting the most for the guys he’s been here with longer.” Jughead says with a nod. “Tell them to defer to your dad, Pea. I’m putting this in his hands.” Sweet Pea nods. 

“Thank you.” Sweet Pea said, his voice solemn. He nodded at Fangs, and pulled out his phone, likely calling his dad to fill him in. Toni too was on the phone, talking in a low voice, probably telling her grandfather to gather the Serpent council, and figure out how to deal with Tall Boy. Jughead put an arm around Betty, tugging her towards the stairs. 

“Come on. They can handle this from here. Let’s go get breakfast.” 

They ride to Pop’s in silence. Once they’re in the parking lot, away from the Wyrm and the Southside, Betty knows she could, maybe even should, take the jacket off. 

She decides not to. 

When Jughead sits down in his preferred booth, she slides in next to him, instead of across the way, and leans her head on his shoulder. 

“Thank you. For what you said back there.” her voice is quiet, and she sounds tired and sad. 

“I meant it, Betts.” Jughead says seriously, pulling the cup of coffee the waitress has just poured him over. 

“I know you did. That’s why it matters so much.” 

After a pause, Betty presses a soft kiss to Jughead’s cheek. Before she can pull away, he catches her chin with one finger, gently turning her to face him, so her lips met his. He pulls her in, cupping her face in his hands, and she melts against him, smiling into the kiss. When she finally pulls back, she tucks her face into his neck. 

“I have wanted to do that… forever. At least since we were like, ten years old.” Jughead whispers, stroking the side of Betty’s face. She looks up at him, eyes wide, and smiles. 

“I think that’s part of why my mom worked so hard to push you away. I think she knew how I felt about you. You’ve always been there for me, Jug. Even when we couldn’t even be in the same room.” 

“Well it’s about time.” A jovial voice said, and Jughead and Betty both looked up, chuckling when they saw Pop Tate himself standing at the end of their table, holding their usual breakfast orders. “On the house.” he says as he puts the plates down. “You kids deserve it.” 

“Thanks Pop.” Jughead says, grinning goofily and shoving bacon into his face. Betty laughed quietly. 

“Your birthday is coming up soon, right?” Jughead asks as they finish their meal, leaving a hearty tip and heading for the door. “The big one-eight?”

“Yeah, why?” Betty asks as she climbs onto the back of Jughead’s bike. 

“Let’s make a quick pit stop.” he says, before revving the bike and driving off. They head just out of town, stopping at a hardware and convenience store. Jughead has Betty wait on the bike, and walks out a few minutes later with a haphazardly wrapped small gift. She gives him a bemused look, and takes it, carefully opening the paper. Inside is a key. A house key. It’s pink, bedazzled, and says ‘Princess’ on it. Betty raises an eyebrow. 

“It’s the key to the trailer. Your key. If you want it. Consider it an early birthday gift.” he smiles at her, but his eyes are cautious. 

“Why the ‘princess?’” Betty asks, chuckling. 

“Well, they call me the Serpent Prince after all.” Jughead smirks, raising an eyebrow. 

Betty’s eyes glisten with tears as she grins, pulling him down by his jacket collar to kiss him. 

“I love you, Jughead Jones.” she says, her voice quiet, but sure and steady. 

“I love you, Betty Cooper.” his eyes are soft, and he kisses her again, playing with the old jacket she wears. 

“Take me home, Juggie.” Betty whispers at him, waving at his motorcycle. He grins, and gestures his arms dramatically. 

“Your chariot, my lady.” he says, grinning cheekily. Then he climbs onto the bike, and Betty climbs behind him, wrapping her arms tight around his waist. 

While they drive back to the trailer, Jughead can feel her smile pressed against his back.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was inspired by a random plot bunny i had on the way to work about a desperate betty who hasn't seen jug in months trying to find him at the whyte wyrm. this is the most i've dealt with the southside in any of my fics so far. hope you guys enjoyed!


End file.
